Category Archives: Tenkara Blog

It was a gloomy day on Bear Creek today. Surrounded by dark waters, cold grey rocks, scraggly leave-less trees, dead grasses, and overcast skies, I felt like I was fishing in a Tim Burton movie. Luckily, the fishing was better than the weather… It’s been an eternity since I’ve fished Bear Creek. For much…

It happens to even the most experienced angler. You come across a magazine-perfect pod of trout in crystal clear water. Your eyes become laser focused on them. Anticipation builds. Your adrenaline kicks in. You plot the first and and can almost feel the trout in your hand already. But then, they scatter as if someone…

For me, the biggest highlight of the 2012 Tenkara Summit was meeting and being able to fish with all the Japanese anglers that attended. It was great to learn about tenkara from people who practice it in its birthplace. As you might imagine, there was a lot of talk and trading of tenkara flies. It…

Fly tiers have it pretty easy these days. Run out of red floss during a marathon tying session of Royal Coachmans? Head down to your local fly shop and pick some up. Need fluorescent pink guinea fowl for a killer new Spey fly? Order in online and it will be at your door in a…

I just got a new tenkara rod today from Tenkara Times (review to follow) and it included a free sampling of some of their sakasa kebari. I didn’t think much of it at first until I opened up the packaging and saw the quality of tying. These are good tenkara flies. Here are some closeups…

A few months ago, I bought my dream car: a Jeep Wrangler. So what makes it a “tenkaramobile”? Well, first and foremost, it is the vehicle that will transport me to all of my future tenkara adventures. But there are a few other tweaks I’ve made to “tenkara-ize” it. Tenkara License Plates Much to…

Anyone who frequently visits the Tenkara USA forums has probably seen posts by someone named “Eddie”. What some may not know is that “Eddie” is actually Eiji Yamakawa, an expert tenkara angler from Japan. We first came into contact when he helped me get my Nissin Prosquare tenkara rod and we have kept in contact…

No, I’m not trying to start a revolution (yet). “Viva” is a color scheme for fly patterns that is extremely popular on the UK Stillwater scene. The original Viva was a wet fly tied by Victor Furse for reservoir fishing but has since become a template color combination of black, chartreuse, and silver and is…

Ever since a I can remember I’ve been doing something that might be considered strange and have always wondered if I’m the only one, or if other anglers do it as well. Basically, I “cull” flies from my fly box. That is, when I take a fly out of my box to fish it, that’s…

I was ecstatic when Masami Sakakibara (AKA, “Tenkara no Oni”) recently agreed to do an interview with me. Tenkara no Oni is not only a tenkara master but is known for his amazing casting style which is often referred to as “magical”. He recently put up an English language website called Masami Sakakibara’s World of…

Don’t be put off by the title. I’m not about to incite a heated debate about what is or isn’t a “tenkara” fly and delve into an infinite loop of semantic minutia. Instead, I thought I would simply list out the criteria I use when selecting patterns that I think work well for tenkara. And…

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve probably seen some changes over the years. So I thought it would be fun to give a little history on the site, and where it is now. 1. This website started out as backpackflyfishing.com. Originally, the main focus was on fly fishing and lightweight backpacking…

No matter how many times I see a sakasa kebari underwater, I’m always surprised on how alive they come underwater–with even the slightest twitch. No wonder they’re such effective flies. Here’s a quick video I shot today in both normal speed and slow motion to show how well the hackle moves in the water.

I recently posted about Masami Sakakibara’s (AKA Tenkara no Oni) new English-language website and how it opened up a world of information to the western world. Well now, I’m pleased to announce that Sakakibara-sensei has agreed to do an interview with me! My first reaction was to send over a list of my own questions…

Tenkara line spools seem simple enough. After all, they’re basically just spools. And this might lead on to believe that they’re all pretty much the same. But I’ve found that some actually better than others. I’ve mostly been using spools from Tenkara USA and Leica and have been very happy with them but when I…

I recently wrote that I’ve been tying and fishing palmered flies for tenkara lately. My theory is that if the hackle is spread out over more of the body of the fly, it will give the pattern more movement and, thus, be more attractive to fish. So I started tying flies with hackle palmered through…

Today, there was big news in the tenkaraverse. Tenkara master Masami Sakakibara (AKA “Tenkara no Oni”) launched a new, English website, unlocking a treasure trove of information about tenkara to the Western and English speaking world. The site is still under construction but already features a wealth of information including videos, posts, & articles directly…

Tenkara Times is a relatively new player in the rapidly growing tenkara market and I recently had a chance to field test one of their rods. Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly on it… Specs Length: 365 cm (12 ft.) Closed length: 56 cm (22 in.) Weight: 73 grams (3 oz.) Handle length:…

While the majority of my tenkara fishing is done with a sakasa kebari, I’ve also been experimenting with some hybrid flies that combine the fish catching qualities borrowed from my days steelhead fishing and classic British palmered flies. “Palmered” just means that the hackle is wound through the body of the fly rather than just…

I know this isn’t a great video but I’ve been getting a lot of interest in Eiji Yamakawa’s furled tenkara lines since my recent post. This is footage I took at the 2012 Tenkara Summit and while it was difficult to get a good shot because of all the people crowded around and I’m…

It might sound strange, but I have come to believe that fishless days can actually be a good thing (well, every once in a while, that is). And I’ll even take it a step further and add that ultimately, I think they make us better anglers and deepen our appreciation of the sport. I’ve been…

Over the weekend, I got a chance to field test a prototype line made by John Veterlli of Tenkara Guides. It’s a hybrid line based off of a formula invented by master Japanese tenkara angler Eiji Yamakawa (a.k.a. “Eddie” on the Tenkara USA Forums). While I’ve pretty much been fishing tenkara level lines exclusively over…

My daughter Emma doesn’t know it yet, but she’s the world’s youngest tenkara angler. I say this because even though she’s only four months old, she embodies the spirit of tenkara. She takes pleasure in simple things, lives completely in the moment, and basically just takes a beginner’s mind approach to every experience. My wife…

Let’s face it. Even the most expertly tied fly is not immortal. Though it might have escaped the perils of underwater snags, tree branches lurking in our backcasts, or weak knots, it will eventually succumb to the merciless jaws of countless trout ripping it to shreds. And at some point, it’s time to retire it.…

Today, I received my long awaited gyotaku print! In Japanese, “gyo” means “fish” and “taku” roughly translates to “rubbing”, so “gyotaku” could be translated as “fish rubbing”. Basically, the process involves painting a fish (literally), then laying a piece of washi paper over it, rubbing it to transfer the ink (or paint) to the paper,…

To western fly tiers, typical tenkara flies like sakasa kebari might seem boring. After all, many of them are nothing more than hackle and a thread body. No wings, no tails, no intricate bodies. It might seem that if one wanted to fish tenkara flies exclusively, they’d quickly tire of tying the same old thing.…

In tenkara, we talk a lot about level lines and tapered furled lines but there really isn’t much discussion on “weight forward” lines. Yes, I do mean “weight forward” in the western fly fishing sense. In fact, I had never even considered it until Tenkara Talk reader Tony Wee mentioned it in the comments section…

Long before I started fishing tenkara, I had given up on wearing a vest. I guess one day I finally had enough of the heavy, bulky, and hot garment holding me back like a straightjacket. I didn’t use 90% of the stuff I carried in its multitude of pockets anyway so why carry it? I…

Recently, I tried out some red Amnesia for a tenkara level line. I was impressed with its high visibility, but not so much with the way it cast. Being nylon monofilament, it isn’t as dense as the fluorocarbon level lines I’m used to fishing and didn’t turn over as well. It casts, but you have…

The “Calligraphy Brush” is basically a slightly more dressed up version of the Kamikaze Kebari with cufflinks and a collar. The ingredients are almost the same except “the brush” is tied on a slightly longer hook to accomodate an ostrich herl thorax. The ostrich thorax gives a little meatiness to the fly, absorbs water to…